"Hmph, that clueless woman, all her scheming amounts to nothing. She has no idea that Arlen’s playing for our team!"
Eunice watched their retreating figures with a curious glint in her eye. Although she didn’t have any concrete evidence to reveal who the mole really was, the sight of the trio ascending the stairs together gave her a strong hunch that the traitor wasn’t acting alone.
"Arlen, what did that woman say to you earlier?" Calvin whispered urgently as they reached the top of the staircase. "How much does she really know?"
"She blabbed a whole lot of nonsense at first, nothing of value. But then she handed this USB drive, claid all the secrets were on it."
Arlen pushed open the door to the study and booted up the computer, plugging in the USB drive.
There it was—an encrypted folder!
Arlen typed in ’123456’, but the password was incorrect. He tried again—sa result.
"Is that woman tricking ?" Arlen’s face darkened with suspicion, wondering what kind of ga she was playing.
"Earlier, she asked if you rembered, and you said you did. You bragged about not being senile, so why can’t you rember now?"
Bess was suddenly skeptical. Could it be that Arlen was deliberately entering the wrong password, planning to keep the contents to himself once they left?
Arlen frowned, irritated. "Bess, what are you insinuating? Are you suggesting that I’m faking the password error so you can’t see what’s inside?"
"You said that the secret Eunice gave you was simple, but you got it wrong. So, what’s the real password?"
"123456."
"Who sets such a simple password? If the contents were that important, she would never use sothing so basic!"
Arlen was getting annoyed. "That’s what she told —the password!"
"You said earlier that she spouted a bunch of useless nonsense before ntioning the USB drive. Based on what I know about her, she’s not one to beat around the bush. Could it be that she said sothing beforehand that you’re not comfortable sharing with us?" Bess pressed on with her suspicion.
"What could possibly be so uncomfortable? Did you or Calvin do sothing in the past that might co back to bite you if I found out?"
"That’s out of line!" Bess exploded like a cat with its tail stepped on.
Seeing Bess’ reaction, Arlen suddenly considered the possibility.
But Eunice’s business took precedence.
"Eunice only talked about her life with Alexander and how sincere his feelings were for her. She didn’t say anything else!"
That’s why he thought Eunice had been rambling on about irrelevant things.
"Nothing else? Are you sure about that, Arlen?"
When Arlen realized he was getting nowhere with Bess, he turned to Calvin. "Calvin, you don’t trust either?"
"Let’s do this. Do you have anyone who could crack this password?"
Calvin’s words were cut short by a sharp nudge from his wife.
"Honey, have you forgotten? We have our own tech whiz. It’s Arlen’s birthday today. We can’t bother him with this. Let’s take the USB drive back and have soone on our team look into it."
Upon hearing this, Arlen realized that Bess wanted to see the contents first. Could it be that there were things even he wasn’t aware of?
"Bess, you are so hung up on that flash drive. Could it be that there’s sothing on there you don’t want to see?"
Arlen didn’t hesitate. He yanked the flash drive from the computer and slipped it into his pocket.
Bess panicked. "I knew it! You know the password. You’ve just been playing dumb, trying to catch us out! What could we possibly have that you don’t know about? It’s you, isn’t it? Have you been doing sothing behind Calvin’s back? Hand over that flash drive!"
Upstairs, Eunice knew chaos had erupted. When she saw Rosemary approach, a smirk played on her lips.
"You’re quick on your feet, kiddo."
"You’re not too shabby yourself, Aunt Eunice."
Eunice’s voice dropped to a whisper. "There are over a hundred caras around this mansion. Can you hack them remotely?"
Her people, upon arriving nearby, discovered that the entire area within a five-hundred-yard radius of the mansion was under surveillance. It looked like Arlen was planning sothing big.
"I’ve taken care of the caras by the back door and along the east fence."
Eunice was taken aback. "When did you do that?"
"Just now. After eavesdropping on Mr. Clarence and his goons in the study, I paid a little visit to Arlen’s room and took the liberty of disabling them."
Eunice hadn’t expected her niece to be so swift, nor so clever—to anticipate their moves and disable the caras in advance.
"So, you’re telling that if soone were to co in through the east fence or the back door, the caras wouldn’t catch a thing?"
Rosemary nodded. "The guys in the security room will see the tistamps moving, but the footage is frozen. The system isn’t recording anything. Even if soone were to walk in right now, it wouldn’t show up on their screens."
"You’re amazing!" Eunice couldn’t help but pinch Rosemary’s cheeks. Her niece was truly a hidden gem.
anwhile...
Mr. Clarence’s gaze remained dark and nacing. He turned to his head of security. "How’s the surveillance footage coming along?"
The head of security replied respectfully, "Right before you went upstairs, seven or eight guests left the main hall for the garden. The caras don’t cover every nook there, but those who appeared on screen seed normal. No anomalies detected."
"And what about Eunice and that girl she brought with her?" Mr. Clarence asked, eyeing them from a distance, suspecting sothing fishy about the pair.
"Eunice has been cornered by a group of ladies the whole ti, and as for that girl, Mr. Burnell was chatting her up not long before the caras went down. We didn’t get anything on tape."
"What did you say?" Mr. Clarence’s eyes flickered with shock. Could it be that girl had pulled off her move right then?
"After you ntioned soone was eavesdropping outside the study, I led a team to check on the guests. We searched the main hall, then the garden, and found Eunice and the girl there. Neither had left the area. They didn’t seem suspicious."
"No." Mr. Clarence still sensed trouble. If that girl knew how to restore deleted footage, then she surely knew how to erase it!
"But the ti from when you went to the study until we discovered the eavesdropper was only a few minutes.
Our n were all over the property. If that girl really went upstairs, she would’ve been seen. It’s unlikely she could move in and out undetected in such a short span."
So, the head of security believed the suspicion was unfounded.
"It’s either she’s up to sothing, or she has an accomplice. Either way, keep a close eye on them! Even if they go to the restroom, send so won in after them to make sure they’re not plotting sothing!"
"Yes, sir."
Reviews
All reviews (0)